I really like Atlantis's feature of opening the documents it was last closed with and use it often. However, I do sometimes have more than one document open mistakenly and find myself double checking I haven't got more than one doc open. I'd therefore like an instant, visual way to tell how many documents are open. I can go to the 'Window' menu item and see all open docs listed but to my mind, this is overly time consuming and cumbersome.
At first I thought perhaps that each document window could have its own tab but unless they were displayed vertically down the side of the window, that would eat up more horizontal screen space (I use a laptop with limited screen resolution) but it then occurred to me that the number of documents open could easily be displayed in the top window 'bar' (where it currently says 'Atlantis 1.6 - [D:\Docs\Meetings.rtf]' or whatever).
How about it?
P.S. Actually, I'm warming to the idea of vertical tabs now that I'm thinking about it...
As I understand, the Document Bar is disabled in your Atlantis. Note that the Document Bar can be horizontally-aligned or vertically-aligned (right-click the Document Bar to change its position). The Document Bar can be also resized. It can have up to 5 rows of buttons.
Also pressing Alt+0 displays the list of the currently open documents.
Last edited by admin on Thu Jun 28, 2018 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
admin wrote:Please right-click the Document Bar, and choose the "Position | Left" or "Position | Right" command.
Sorry, I didn't make myself very clear - I already have the bar position on the right of the screen.
What I meant was that at the moment the actual buttons within the document bar are displayed horizontally, requring the bar to be quite wide (or not showing much of the document title in the button). I'm suggesting rotating the buttons within the bar so they appear vertically. That way, the document bar could show the same info (possibly more) in a much smaller space.
Sorry, but this would not be possible. However you can change the width of the vertically-aligned Document Bar. Just capture its right edge with the mouse, and drag.
There are popup hints with full filenames displayed when you place the mouse pointer over the Document Bar buttons. Alt+0 also displays full filenames.
If you do not have many documents open, why not use the "Top" or "Bottom" position of the Document Bar? Having vertically-aligned buttons in such cases would not save any extra screen space.
admin wrote:There are popup hints with full filenames displayed when you place the mouse pointer over the Document Bar buttons. Alt+0 also displays full filenames.
I know I'm being picky but that requires me to carefully position the cursor and wait (a fraction of a second). The Alt+0 method means (assuming it replaces the document bar) that the list of open docs are hidden - the thing I'm trying to overcome.
admin wrote:If you do not have many documents open, why not use the "Top" or "Bottom" position of the Document Bar? Having vertically-aligned buttons in such cases would not save any extra screen space.
I obviously wouldn't want the buttons vertical if the doc bar was positioned at either the top or bottom position.
I have a 1024x768 screen which means vertical space is at a premium in a word processor where I want to be able to see as much of the page (without zooming out) as possible. However, I do have spare space to either side of the 'page' hence it fills the space better to have the doc bar on the left or right rather than top or bottom. I could mockup a screen shot showing the result I'm talking about if I'm not explaining it very clearly.
By the way, if the problem rotating the buttons 90 degrees is displaying the text, would it be an option to do it...
admin wrote:I have a 1024x768 screen which means vertical space is at a premium in a word processor where I want to be able to see as much of the page (without zooming out) as possible.
Hi,
Have you tried working in Full Screen mode (F9)?
When you are in Full Screen mode, your vertical working space is maximized if you choose to display only the document window, plus the Document Bar at the Top or Bottom.
Please have a look at the various “Full screen mode hides” options on the View tab of the “Tools | Options…” dialog.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Robert
Thanks for the suggestion. I am aware of Full Screen mode but tend not to use it. I find that, with the way I work, I need to have the menu & status bars along with the standard and formatting toolbars on screen all the time so everything I commonly use is to hand. This means there's not much advantage for me in using the full screen mode. Having said that, it does give me a couple more lines of the page so maybe I should get into the habit of using it more.
Perhaps it's worth explaining the logic behind this (and most of my other) suggestion(s). The feature requests I make tend to be in order for more (useful) information to be displayed or to get easier access a function. In both cases it's to allow me to continue working without distraction. It bugs me when I have to break off from what I'm doing in order to get a piece of information I want or to activate a function. For example, pressing Alt+0 to get a list of open docs or placing and hovering the cursor over a small area of the screen when the information could easily be displayed all the time is distracting to me. Anything that forces me to break off from what I'm writing is bad in my view - the flow of ideas (when it comes) shouldn't be disrupted by the software I'm using, it should be eased. Don't get me wrong, Atlantis is great and has replaced Word for me 99% of the time but being that much closer to my ideal just means that it's easier to spot the little irritants in using the software. I don't think my vocabulary's big enough to adequately describe the number of irritants I find in Word or (shudder) Microsoft Project. Atlantis does what it does very well for the most part but there are a few areas I'd like to see improved, hence my suggestions.
So... I still think the doc bar would be improved (when it's docked to the left or right) if the buttons/tabs were rotated 90 degrees. This would take up a significantly smaller space while allowing any reasonable document name to be fully displayed, allowing the user instant access to that information (should they want it) without interruption.
Hi,
I just conducted a little test.
I opened a document, first with the Document Bar at the bottom, then to the right of the document window.
When the Document Bar was to the right of the document window, I got two more lines (vertically) then when it was at the bottom.
So, despite appearances, you'd be better off if you displayed the Document Bar to the right of the document window if you want more vertical space.
As far as horizontal space is concerned, there is less with the document bar to the right. But if you switch the Control Board off, you should have enough screen space available for the whole length of the document lines.
It does not matter if the Document Bar is displayed to the right (or left) or at the bottom of the document window, the document names are just as visible in both cases. That they are displayed only partially should not be a problem unless all your documents start with the same text strings.
Now to go back to your original worry, namely that you "sometimes have more than one document open mistakenly", here is a tip. I am assuming that you have installed the latest upgrade to version 1.6.1.9 of Atlantis Word Processor.
1. Open the file(s) that you currently want to work with.
2. Create a new Document Project ("File | Document Project > New").
3. Close the Document Project.
4. Open your file manager (Windows Explorer by default) and locate the Document Project file (by default in "My Documents").
5. Open the "File | Properties" dialog for the Document Project file.
6. Change its attribute to "Read-Only".
7. OK out of the dialog.
In this way, Atlantis will not be able to add any document to your Document Project. Whenever you close this Project, and you have opened extra documents, they won't be saved automatically as part of the Project. Atlantis will pop a message up asking you for confirmation. Click the" Ignore" button.
This is a good way to make sure that only your working documents get reloaded at startup.
Now here is a different method to make sure that only specific documents get reloaded at startup.
1. Open the documents that you want reloaded at startup.
2. Save a configuration ("Tools | Options | Save to File...")
3. On your Desktop, or anywhere suitable, create a shortcut to launch Atlantis with the following command-line:
"C:\Program Files\Atlantis\Atlantis.exe" /lsi /dss /sfn "My Settings.ini"
Whenever you launch Atlantis with these command-line parameters, it will reopen the same files that you registered until you change the configuration file.
This is a good way to know at all times which documents are open.
Robert wrote:
you'd be better off if you displayed the Document Bar to the right of the document window if you want more vertical space.
That's exactly what I'm now doing. Did I give the impression I thought I'd get more vertical space if the bar was at the top or bottom of the screen?
Robert wrote:
if you switch the Control Board off, you should have enough screen space available for the whole length of the document lines
I have the board shrunk down as thin as it will go to keep maximum space. This is where the space would be better used if the buttons within it were rotated 90 degrees.
Robert wrote:
That they are displayed only partially should not be a problem unless all your documents start with the same text strings.
I have to disagree with you there. With the bar shrunk as much as possible, it's difficult to tell which is which when there are several docs open.
Thanks for the two tips but I'm not sure they're useful for me given the way I work. I will look into them though.
I have the board shrunk down as thin as it will go to keep maximum space. This is where the space would be better used if the buttons within it were rotated 90 degrees.
Do you mean that you have so little horizontal screen space that you have to scroll the document window horizontally to see all of the lines?
Also do you have the Control Board (F6) displaying or not? If it is displayed, you could switch it off (F6). This would give you added horizontal screen space.
Ok, here's a mockup to show what I mean including how 2 rows might look. If the icon and '.rtf' were removed from the name, they'd take up even less space.
Hi,
Thanks for the mock-up but I had understood what you meant.
I agree with you on all 3 counts:
1. Using vertically-aligned tabs would give you more horizontal space.
2. You'd have even more space if the icons and the file extensions could be removed.
3. The Document Bar would display in a better way.
This said, I fail to see how this is necessary since you say that you "don't have to scroll horizontally to see the width of the page". Why would you need more horizontal space if you already can see the whole page width?
Am I missing something? Or do you want to display your documents with a bigger zoom and you cannot for lack of horizontal space?
My original request to have a way to see how many documents are open is largely solved by having the 'Document Bar' open on the right hand side of the screen. There are some minor irritations to the way it works but I can see a simple solution to them hence my suggestion.
One problem is that it takes up too much space. True, it's not so much that it forces me to scroll horizontally to see my whole page but that isn't the problem for me. Personally, I don't like too much (unnecessary) clutter on the screen as I find it confusing and distracting. This may not seem a problem to many but it bothers me especially when I can see a simple solution. I also think it's the sign of a poorly designed bit of software (which Atlantis isn't on the whole).
I minimise the space problem by shrinking the Document Bar to make it as thin as possible. The problem with that is the document names are then all but invisible and it's more trouble than it should be to tell one from another.
So, to solve both the space problem and the visibility of the document names, I'm suggesting rotating the buttons 90 degrees. To me, this is a very elegant solution that has no practical down sides that I can see (especially if the button orientation were a user selected option). Indeed, it improves in both areas as a) the minimum room taken up by the document bar is at least halved and b) any reasonable filename is fully visible or, at least, much more recognisable than the 3 letters that are currently displayed when the bar is at its thinnest size.
I don't know how simple it would be to code but having worked in the software industry for many years, I really can't imagine it's beyond the capabilities of a competent programmer.
Whether the Atlantis programmer(s) consider it worth their time to implement is a different thing of course. I'm hoping the work is small enough and the benefits obvious enough to be worth doing but that's not my decision.
Any next release of Atlantis Word Processor will have a new command in the right-click menu of the Document Bar. No file extension will be displayed by the Document Bar when this option is off.
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Any chance of also having the option to remove the icon displayed before the start of the name? I think that would have an even greater effect in displaying more info'.
